Slain veteran's mom: VA Hospital could have helped him

Isaac Sims turned away from hospital before police standoff

The mother of a Kansas City veteran who died in a police standoff last month said she thinks that if he had been able to get the mental health care he needed for flashbacks and post-traumatic stress, he would still be alive.

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His mother, Patricia Sims, said her son could never get re-adjusted to civilian life.

"Everything was just not right," she said. "(He was) not our Isaac that we had seen through the years in the service."

She said she knew her son, a third-generation Army infantryman, was born to be a soldier.

"They'd say, 'Sims up to the front.' He would come up and they said, 'If you want to be a good soldier, do what this one does. Do what this one does,'" she said.

After six years and two tours of duty in Iraq, his physical and mental condition pushed him out of the service and back to Kansas City.

"There's no place for us to go for help except the VA Hospital," Sims said.

Little help came in the days and weeks leading up to his death. Patricia Sims said her son pleaded for treatment for the flashbacks and post-traumatic stress that consumed his life.

"He was there for help. He knew he needed help. In his own mind, he even knew he needed help," she said. "(He) finally admitted it to himself and was willing and ready to get help and there was no help for him."

He was turned away just before tragedy struck.

During what his family believes was a post-traumatic stress episode, Sims was shot dead after a standoff with police. Officers said they saw him coming out of the house with a gun.

"The PTSD just took him over. It took over his thoughts," Patricia Sims said. "And his last day here on earth, in his mind, he was in Iraq."

She said she hopes her son's story will bring change before another soldier who could have been helped falls.